


It's quiet... too quiet...

by frigginadorable



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, cute lil dorks omg, detective ryuugazaki, rei is a huge nerd i apologize, reigisa - Freeform, this ship is ruining my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 20:52:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2243136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frigginadorable/pseuds/frigginadorable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa’s been quiet, all three of them noticed, only one was determined to figure out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's quiet... too quiet...

Nagisa’s been quiet, all three of them noticed, only one was determined to figure out why. It wasn’t that Haru and Makoto didn’t care, they just figured he was going through some emotional struggle and would open up eventually.

Rei wasn’t about to settle for waiting, he needed to know what was bothering the blonde and he needed to know now. So, like any good researcher does, he collected data in any way, shape or form he could get it. 

He studied his friend, watched his ever movie. Noted every time Nagisa sighed before taking a bite of his favorite bread, the way he kept his hair covering his eyes, how every time Rei looked over at him he averted his gaze to the floor. 

Something was definitely wrong and Rei was determined to get to the bottom of it. It looked like this was a job for Detective Ryugazaki. He smiled to himself before lifting a celery stick to his mouth and munching on it quietly, taking precise bites despite being lost in thought. 

He almost didn’t hear Nagisa’s surprisingly soft voice calling his name, trying to alert him that lunch was almost over and they had to go. Rei blinked once before smiling and nodding, packing the remainder of his lunch away and following after the blonde. 

 

— 

 

“Rei-chan, d’you think you could come over after practice and help me study for our Math test?” Nagisa glanced up at him with wide, hopeful eyes as they walked down the hallway to the locker rooms. Rei saw this as the perfect opportunity to gather more information and study his subject more closely.

“Okay, Nagisa-kun, as long as we actually _study_ this time.”  He nodded firmly and smiled as enthusiastically as he could, pleased with the way Nagisa’s shoulders seemed to relax at the gesture. They continued to their lockers in silence, changing with the same level of comfortable quietness that neither of them seemed to mind. 

Usually, Nagisa was going on and on about something which Rei pretended to listen to, offering a small “ _Mmmh_.” in reply. However, he had noticed the past few days the energized conversations were to a minimum. Another vital piece of evidence that he was sure would help uncover the problem that Nagisa was facing. 

“Let’s go, Rei-chan. Gou-kun will kill us if we’re late again!” That was the most punctuated sentence he’s heard from Nagisa in four days. An improvement, he’s sure of it, but Rei makes sure not to get too comfortable with the spark of hope presented to him. 

“Coming!” He slipped his goggles around his neck and grabbed his cap, tucking it in the waistband of his swimsuit before chasing after Nagisa. 

Practice went relatively normally, Nagisa swam beautifully as per usual, however he seemed to be distracted as they attempted another training exercise for relay. He was always a few seconds off when he dove in, Rei noticed how tense his back muscles were. 

Rei also noticed the way Nagisa’s wet swimsuit clung to his hips, which curved ever so slightly— **No** , he had to stay focused. He grunted when Makoto slapped a hand on his back, body jerking forward in surprise. 

“You really shouldn’t worry about him so much, Nagisa’s strong and smart, he’ll be fine. If something was really wrong, he’d tell us, right? Especially after what happened with his parents.” Makoto’s words obviously were an attempt to reassure Rei but it didn’t matter, he was practically hell bent on finding out what was wrong. 

After they finished relay practice, Gou released them for the day. Rei continued to keep an eye on Nagisa as the four of them shuffled into the locker room. Haru and Makoto seemed to be chatting among themselves, probably planning what they were going to have for dinner. The two of them seemed to be spending an increased amount of time together, if that were even possible. Rei didn’t think too much about it, however, he had bigger things to worry about. 

 

—

 

To his utter and complete shock, once they entered the Hazuki household, Nagisa marched straight to his room and opened his books. He was actually studying, pencil scribbling furiously as he wrote out the math equations, forehead wrinkled in concentration. Rei stood there and watched him carefully, examined the hunch of his shoulders over the table.

“Rei-chan, what are you doing?” Nagisa questioned, glancing up from his work for a moment, eyes flickering with curiosity. Rei sputtered, searching for an answer that wouldn’t lead on any suspicion to the mission he was currently assigned to.  

“Oh, ahah, n-nothing.” Real smooth, Detective. He grimaced slightly before taking a seat on the floor beside Nagisa’s bed, pulling his binder and folders out, trying to gather his thoughts as he wrote down formulas. Rei was too lost in thought to notice that Nagisa hadn’t stopped staring at him, in fact now it was becoming hard to not notice. 

Those wide eyes burned through him, making him squirm, there was only so much one man could take. Rei glanced up at the other, once their eyes met Nagisa quickly spun away and went back to his work.

Licking his lips, Rei tried to comprehend what just happened but with no such luck. What had just happened? Did he see a blush on Nagisa’s cheeks? The Detective seemed to be off of his game, the case should’ve been solved by now, he’d gathered enough evidence. 

He sighed softly before returning to his own work, it was time for him to put the case to rest, for now at least. Rei figured he might as well help Nagisa study, that was most important after all, plus it wasn’t every day that the blonde was willingly doing his work. 

 

—

 

The next day during practice Nagisa asked the same question, the same hopeful look shining in his soft pink eyes. Rei couldn’t deny him even if he wanted to, especially when the other pouted his lip like that, he wondered if Nagisa did that on purpose or it just happened. 

After they finished training for the day, Nagisa and Rei caught the train together, sitting side by side. Rei had spaced out almost as soon as they sat down, he was still trying to piece together everything he’d gathered.

Nothing fit right, he couldn’t figure out the problem, never mind find a solution. And, you know what? It was beginning to frustrate him. He’d only known Nagisa for, what’s it been? Almost a year? They’d become close, in fact, Rei’s pretty sure he’s never let anyone in like he’s let Nagisa. So, why couldn’t he figure this out? 

Though all this thinking he must’ve been making a face because soon he felt a soft hand on his cheek. Rei blinked, what he now identified as Nagisa’s gentle touch bringing him back from his deep, intensive thought process. Nagisa had been doing a lot of that lately, grounding Rei whenever he got too lost in the web of his own mind. 

“Rei-chan, our stop is next.” Nagisa hummed sweetly, fingers still caressing Rei’s cheek in the most delicate way. It took everything he had to resist leaning into the touch, he wanted to feel more than the teasingly light pressure. 

“Oh, right.” He managed to get out, unable to prevent the flush rising to his cheeks as a thumb rubbed his cheek bone soothingly. Something flickered in Nagisa’s eye before he pulled his hand away, a little too quickly, Rei might add. What _was_ that? He was willing to bet it had something to do with the out of character silence of his best friend.

Rei bit the inside of his cheek as he turned his head in the other direction, terribly confused about his own feelings and upset with himself for not being able to figure this out. 

 

— 

 

It went on like that for a few days, Nagisa offering short, lighthearted responses, giving Rei gentle touches and Rei always yearning for more. It was like torture and he wasn’t sure how much of this he could take. 

On the fourth day he’d given up the concept of Detective Ryugazaki, that guy wasn’t any help to the situation anyways. For once in his life, Rei had to rely on intuition, which was an idea that had only recently been introduced to him by the one and only, Nagisa. 

Whenever he was with Nagisa, there was no calculating or thinking, it was always just _do_. At first it was stressful, not being offered the time to figure out the logistics of what what happening, what was going to happen, or what had already happened.

It was like swimming, Rei couldn’t rely on his theories and formulas whenever he was in the water. He had to trust himself and his body’s ability to keep him safe, it was new but certainly not as unpleasant as he thought it’d be. 

Friendship with Nagisa was like being in the water, both to which he’d adapted pretty well to and was enjoying more and more each day. 

  

—

 

With the whole, _less thinking and more doing_ , philosophy stuck in his mind it wasn’t so hard to do what he was going to do. They were sitting across from each other on Rei’s bed, going over their History work. Nagisa was more than enthusiastic while explaining every detail about the Samurai, Rei smiled and listened, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. 

He could smell Nagisa, a slight hint of strawberry shampoo mixed in with the strong scent of chlorine from today’s practice and some strawberry jelly from the bread he’d eaten on the train ride here. Rei’s gaze wandered along Nagisa’s jawline, over the curvature of his lips and along his cute little nose 

Wait, since when did he start thinking like this? Rei was a professional, put together, serious young man who did not sit in front of his best friend and think about how cute his nose was. Friends don’t do that, _friends don’t do that_.

The realization hit him like a wave, the thoughts dripping into his mind and slowly saturating his thought process with the truth of exactly what was going on here. During his investigation, as he still liked to call it, he’d discovered two things. 

1\. He was in love with Nagisa

2\. There was a very good chance Nagisa reciprocated these feelings

The results had come through hours of examination, experiments and data collecting. One of the biggest indicators was the way Nagisa seemed to grow more talkative the more time they spent together, especially when they would hold hands as they walked back to either of their homes.

At the time Rei hadn’t thought much of it, he’d usually be too lost in thought, trying to put pieces of the puzzle together. Now it was all very clear to him and he wasn’t sure how to take it. He let out a hiss of breath but remained a few inches from Nagisa’s face. 

“Rei-chan?” There was that voice again, dragging him back, clearing the fog away enough so he could see again. Rei blinked once, twice, three times— and then he could clearly see the look in Nagisa’s eyes. 

It was hopeful, shining and full of promise, there was also a nervous gleam to Nagisa’s impossibly wide and devastatingly beautiful eyes. Ah, yes, Rei could see it clearly now— Nagisa had some of the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. 

“N-Nagisa-kun.” His voice shook slightly, his cheeks flamed in response. They both sat there, staring into each other’s eyes, hearts racing and palms sweating. Neither one felt bold enough to make a move but Rei remembered the new saying he’d learned and with a huff he closed the space between them.

He could feel Nagisa suck in a surprised breath before he matched the pressure of Rei’s lips with his own. It was obvious they both were terribly uneducated and inexperienced with this sort of thing but neither of them minded. 

Rei’s mind went fuzzy when he felt the scrape of Nagisa’s teeth on his bottom lip. He parted his lips in response, avoiding thinking the best he could. They were clumsy and awkward but Nagisa and Rei were content with how things were going anyway. 

After a moment, Nagisa pulled away, a delighted giggle escaping his soft pink lips. “I like you so much Rei-chan.” He purred, Rei knew exactly what he meant and the depth of that statement. 

“I like you too, Nagisa-kun.” He smiled wide, watching as the weight was almost visibly lifted off of Nagisa’s shoulders. Something buzzed around in Rei’s chest as he saw a look of pure glee in the other’s eyes. 

“Does this mean we’re— boyfriends, now?” Nagisa’s voice was an octave higher, giggles bubbling deep within his chest as he moved to sit in Rei’s lap. Despite the flush on his cheeks, Rei moved to accommodate Nagisa, legs spreading slightly as they settled like this. 

“I suppose so.” He nodded quickly, unable to get anything else out before Nagisa covered his cheeks with tiny, featherlight kisses. Rei blushed even worse in embarrassment but he couldn’t be happier. Looks like Detective Ryugazaki came through, case _solved_. 

**Author's Note:**

> aaaah i just really love reigisa!!  
> i definitely plan on getting into more detail with the ship  
> but for now have some fluff~


End file.
